The field of the invention is storage racks. Storage racks are typically used in warehouses and other storage facilities to efficiently store loaded pallets. A drive-in rack has an open space between drive-in or side rails large enough to allow a fork-lift truck to enter. This allows the fork lift truck to place pallets directly on rails, at pallet storage positions set back from the front of the storage rack.
In constructing a drive-in storage rack, the drive-in rails must be securely attached to the uprights of the storage rack. In the past, this attachment has been made using a bracket 28 or 40, as shown in FIGS. 1-3. The bracket 28 has an upright angle section 30 welded to an arm section 32 as shown in FIG. 1. A bolt clip 34 is welded to a back or outer surface of the drive-in rail 16, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Bolts 36 attach the arm section 32 to the bolt clip 34, and also attach the upright angle section 30 to the uprights 14. FIG. 3 shows another bracket 40 similar to the bracket 28 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, but using a flat plate 42 bolted to the upright 14 instead of the upright angle section 30 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. While these designs have worked well in the past, they have certain drawbacks.
Initially, these designs require welding the arm section 32 to the upright angle or plate section 30 or 42, and also welding the bolt clip 34 to the drive-in rail 16. These welding steps require time and expense in manufacturing the components for the drive-in rails. During the manufacturing process, dimensional tolerances must also be held to within specified ranges as well, to insure that the bolt holes will line up, further adding to the time and expense for manufacturing, and increasing the potential for scraping components.
In addition, to facilitate installation of drive-in rack components, attachment holes in the upright, bracket and clip components must be oversized to allow fasteners, e.g., bolts, to be installed. Due to the clearance in the bolted connections, when a load is applied to the drive-in rail, the bracket, arm and clip assembly can deflect or sag. This can cause the drive-in rail to deflect into an out of level position, where the rail may not support pallets properly. Accordingly, an improved drive-in rail attachment is needed.